Meridian Board of Education going paperless

Meridian Board of Education members recently received training on new iPad tablet computers, one of the steps taken by administration to help the board go paperless.

“We are a New Tech school, but we were still using paper at our board meetings,” Craig Carmoney said with a laugh. “We have been working on going paperless for some time. New Tech means to go high tech, and we have been going low tech by still using paper,” Carmoney said.

One benefit of the iPads for staff is that they will have access to digital documents no matter where they are on school property. “Staff can pull up documents and paperwork without having to carry that paperwork around with them,” Carmoney said. “It just makes more sense for us.”

Norm Neher, director of technology for the district, hosted a training session for the board to bring them up to speed on the technology. “We have access with our infrastructure to our board policy now, whenever we need it,” Carmoney said.

The school board also discussed security protocols at the three Meridian schools buildings. Currently, two of the three school buildings have secured entrance points, with the third building slated to have similar safety doors installed in the near future.

“We review our safety procedures every year,” Carmoney said. The superintendent added that the district is always looking at safety policies and implementing improved procedures when the need arises.

Carmoney said one of the keys to keeping a school safe is having a clear set of procedures, and sticking to them in the event of a worst case scenario. “We have always paid attention to our emergency procedures in our training, and our staff is knows exactly what to do if the need arises,” he said.

The next scheduled board of education meeting is Monday, Feb. 25, at 7 p.m.